Borger is Having a Birthday, West Texas Today Magazine March 1946
By Joe Cooley – Borger Chamber of Commerce Manager

Borger, Industrial City of West Texas, looks forward to 1946 with keen anticipation, confidence and sheer determination, with 10 years of unprecedented development as a barometer. Unlike other oil boom cities which have lost population in recent years, Borger has gone forward with steady stride not only in production totals but in educational, cultural, building and improvement results.

     Comparable to the atomic bomb age was the beginning of Borger. It was a cold day in March, 1926, when twin wells blew in to start a Barbary Coast city in the Panhandle. Tents, shacks, trailer houses and plain cots dotted the road which now is recognized as the “longest main street in Texas.” From this Mecca of oil men, stampeding here for huge wages and excitement, has sprung an annual gas production of 681 billion cubic feet; 33,300,000 barrels of oil; 361,000,000 pounds of carbon black; 50,000 long tons of synthetic rubber; 469,000,000 gallons of natural gasoline; and 768,600,000 gallons of refined products.

     Laboratories established here and available to the industrial company’s most able scientists, promise new fields in plastic and synthetic developments in the years to come. This naturally means still new industries for this Hutchinson county metropolis.

     In and adjacent to Borger are found six carbon black companies operating 20 plants. It is hard to name an industrial product where carbon black cannot be used to advantage.

BORGER INDUSTRIES

There are 21 oil and gas companies making Borger headquarters; 14 oil supply companies, one synthetic rubber plant, one refinery, twelve gasoline plants, and a new printer’s ink plant. Bank deposits leaped from $829,000 in 1936 to $9,812,632.82 in 1945. Industrial output jumped in the same ratio.

     Borger is strategically located near the center of the vast Panhandle of Texas gas reservoir, claimed to be one of the largest in the world. The city, therefore, is the hub of widespread industrial plants and production. No comparable area in the United States can match its significance in the production for which it is noted. Data, statistics and claims for Borger are remindful of the average Texan’s boosting, but facts bear out Borger’s claims. Here is the world’s largest production for carbon black. Here are plants producing more natural gasoline and allied products than any other field in the world. From here emanate pipelines transmitting more natural gas to domestic and industrial markets than any other field in the United States. Millions of barrels of refined products each year originate in Borger. High octane aviation fuel was born in Borger. From its natural resources and processing plants come materials supplying charging stocks for butadiene and synthetic rubber production.

     Borger’s population, within the city limits is 15,000 citizens; 30,000 within a three mile radius including 4,800 in Phillips and Rice plant sites and 3,200 in Buena Vista and Philrich.

     There have been 1,200 homes erected in and near Borger since 1943, with 107 homes now under construction. Hundreds of additional dwellings will be completed when materials are available. Home owners have decided to beautify the city. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and remodeling are slated for the coming year.

GROWTH NEVER PAUSED

Like other oil boom cities, Borger suffered a decade of businessmen who believed the oil play would soon expire. These men were reluctant to build better buildings, were content with make-shift homes and little improvements. But the bubble did not burst. No business man ever suffered bankruptcy in Borger. Today merchants are taking the lead in civic improvements. New permanent buildings give the main street a modernistic appearance, streets are well lighted, homes are beautiful, and parks, playgrounds, and schools are ever being enlarged and remodeled. While there is still ample room for improvements, the consistent growth of Borger, the future programs of its business men and residents indicate Borger will soon be as modern as any western city.

     The average family income for Hutchinson County for the year of 1945 reflects favorably with any city or county in the nation. Based upon 40,000 population, this figure was $2,466.98.

Retail sales in Borger jumped from $4,132,000 in 1935 to $11,343,000 in 1944. Payrolls increased from $7,461,413 in 1935 to $29,970,000 in 1944.

     Income from minerals was $12,494,575 in 1935 and $23,872,378 in 1944. Cash income from farm products grew to $2,215,066 in 1944 from only $367,794 in 1935. Yet farm subsidy payments decreased to only $39,800 in 1944 from $115,300 in 1935.

Income values added by manufacturing were only $6,296,241 in 1935 but were $13,770,000.

Total income increased $26,735,323 in 1935 to a total of $69,867,244 in 1944.

Figures for 1945, when compiled, are expected to reflect even greater growth.

WORK PROGRAM

Borger is gaining financial strength and is keeping pace with progress with an ever increasing membership in its Chamber of Commerce. An 11-point program offered by the directors of the chamber in December 1945, also reflects the thinking of progressive citizenship. Highlighted, the program is: Solicitation ordinances, parking ordinances on main streets, marking of streets, paving alleys and other thoroughfares of the city, a zoning ordinance, employment of a building inspector, demand fireproof structures on main streets, better trash and garbage laws, and an instruction program for junior police forces to cooperate with officers in traffic duty.

     Borger civic clubs have banded to promote bigger and better recreational areas, parks, and children’s playgrounds. Many new churches are under construction or plans have been approved for such buildings. Borger schools are ever expanding to accommodate larger enrollments. Money is being subscribed for a new 125-room by Borger business men.

     Borger is hopeful of securing the multi-million dollar Canadian River dam at the Sanford site. Such a project, now being surveyed by the U. S. Army Engineers, would not only provide an abundant water supply for the city’s industrial growth, but would irrigate thousands of semi-arid acres in this vicinity and serve the Panhandle’s largest recreational area, offer railroad crossings across the treacherous river, and open new highway arteries to the North Plains region.

     Borger is looking back only for experience. Its citizens know the original boom days are in the past, yet realize a still greater and more prosperous boom is in the future through industrial development and thoughtful planning. Heretofore, Borger has grown, industrially, despite boom-town obstacles. In the future Borger proposes to remove these obstacles and keep pace with the greatest industrial development any city in West Texas has yet attempted.

     And as Borger commemorates its 20th anniversary this March, its citizens plan another record of expansion in readiness for the birthday which will mark its majority in 1947.

     Industry is booming. Borger is keeping pace.